Page 9 of Bitten By Zombie

“Prez?” Outlaw was the perfect veep for Zombie. He was the heavy to his light. A good balance for the club.

“As I was saying, we don’t have a lot of info. Stan, that’s it for now. However, Hook, there was no God knows what else, at least recently according to what she was telling Joanie. So, there’s that.” Hook breathed a sigh of relief. He had a past that made that a touchy subject for him.

“Drugs or not, I don’t think Squatch’s assessment is that far off the mark. So, no one needs to be thinking of her like that. She’s not for the club life, and she’ll be gone as soon as we make it safe.”

Sooner rather than later, if it could be helped. Something about her just rubbed Zombie the wrong way.

He liked his happy life.

He was grateful to be alive and almost in one piece. Someone like Heidi brought out a different side of him, one that liked confrontation and got a thrill from the fight. That wasn’t him anymore.

“Hook, what about the car?” Zombie saw for himself that the car was pretty clean as far as papers or anything to point them in a direction.

“Fucker removed everything and wiped everything down too. Mangled the visible VIN, but I guarantee you he didn’t get ’em all. I was just heading out to look when you called us in.”

“Okay, go do that. As soon as you have something, get it to Virus. Virus.” Zombie shifted focus. “Once you have it, drop everything else. This is priority one. The sooner we figure out who Stan is, we can neutralize and get back to business as usual, and she can get back to her porcubadger life.”

Squatch barked a laugh. “Good one, prez.”

Even though the matter was serious, the guys worked better with a little levity to break the stress. Well, most of them. Outlaw thrived on the chaos. So did Santa.

“Outlaw, Santa, when she makes an appearance, put her at ease. Maybe she’ll talk to one of y’all. Hell, the way she looked at Squatch, Hook, and myself, I think you two are our best bets.”

To be fair, most people looked at Hook the way Heidi did. He was tatted everywhere, even his face. He made an impression, just not always the right one. But people who judge that particular book by its cover are missing out. He was probably the most generous person they’d ever met.

Both Santa and Outlaw looked like normal, upstanding citizens when fully clothed. Chances were good that’s what Heidi was used to.

“It goes without saying, hands off. Be nice, but not that kind of nice.”

Everyone nodded in acknowledgment, and Zombie pounded the meeting closed.

He leaned back and watched his club go about the business at hand and failed to notice his vice hadn’t left but sat there staring at him.

“What?”

“She’s under your skin. After only what, fifteen minutes with her and a head butt to the face?”

Zombie’s hand flew to his lip where she’d split it open earlier.

“Pfft.”

“Pfft all you want, but I know that look. You had that same look when you talked about Angie Hyatt in middle school…”

“Angie used to shove me into the wall when she walked past me between classes.”

“And when you talked about Gennifer Buckley in high school…”

“She was the worst; she’d kick my ass in co-ed wrestling because she knew I didn’t want to accidentally grab a tit doing a maneuver. She won every time.”

“And when you talked about Kristine—”

“What’s your point here, Outlaw?”

“Or Mandee—”

"You’re talking about ancient history. Besides, Heidi is…” His words trailed off.

“Exactly your type.”

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